Description:

WARREN G. HARDING'S DEATHBED HOSPITAL RECORDS
Unique archive of records, the official medical reports and retained copies of press releases pertaining to Harding's 1923 hospital stay and sudden death. Harding, on a cross-country trip in 1923, took ill with what was assumed to be severe after-effects from food poisoning and was hospitalized at Stanford University. He would die on Aug. 2, 1923, at 7:35 PM, from what his personal physician, Charles E. Sawyer, insisted was a hereditary stroke. Interestingly, Sawyer advised Mrs. Harding to forego an autopsy, which she did. While subsequent rumors of foul-play have been ruled out, it would appear that Sawyer misdiagnosed Harding from the start, and contributed to his death by not treating his real condition-- a series of escalating heart attacks. Lot includes: six pages of official "Stanford University Hospital" bedside records, filled out continuously with black ink and reflecting food, medicines, waste elimination, and treatment comments which included doses of caffeine and sodium benzoate; ten typed condition summaries dating from July 30, 1923 to Aug. 2, 1923; July 29, 1923 clinical blood test report; Aug. 1, 1923 stool specimen report from Dr. ERNEST DICKSON of San Francisco; the President's clinical chart tracking temperature, pulse, and respiration, dating from July to Aug. 1923. Also contains an original copy of the typed statement of death by Sawyer and the rest of Harding's medical team, in part: "...Under treatment marked improvement in the pneumonia circulatory disturbances took place, and Thursday, August 2nd, he was free from fever and pain...He was resting comfortably in bed and conversing with Mrs. Harding and General Sawyer when he died instantaneously without a word or a groan. We all believe he died from apoplexy or a rupture of blood vessel in the axis of the brain near the respiratory center...". A rare collection!

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January 20, 2010 10:00 AM EST
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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